Members of the Virginia House of Delegates will vote on a constitutional amendment that could dramatically change how legislative districts are drawn.
Gerrymandered districts have been a problem for more than 200 years, and lawmakers are united in their desire to do something about it. But Democrats in the majority are divided about what to do about it.
Senator George Barker of Fairfax County supports an amendment to the Virginia Constitution that creates a bipartisan commission that will draw the maps and hopefully avoid the racial gerrymandering that became such a problem after the last Census. “I would certainly hope that this process set out through this constitutional amendment that’s proposed here and that was adopted for the first time here last year would help provide the protections that get us headed in the right direction rather than drawing maps that are going to be thrown out by the courts because they are unconstitutional.”
But many members of the Legislative Black Caucus oppose the constitutional amendment. Democratic Delegate Cia Price of Newport News says the closed door secret conference committee leading up to the vote on the amendment was a problem because it didn’t insist on racial diversity of people drawing legislative districts. “And let me tell you that those of us who represent the communities who have been disenfranchised for 400 years, we know what we’re talking about and we would have said it again in the conference committee so that some of these issues would have been addressed prior to that conference report coming out and forcing a vote on it.”
The amendment passed a House committee Monday night with a vote of 13 to 8. Four Democrats joined Republicans in support of the measure, sending it to the House floor for a final vote.
Governor Ralph Northam says he’s reviewing options, including a special session. A spokeswoman for the governor says he’s not currently committed to any specific action or timeline at this point.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
